Ellie had a great day exploring downtown Chattanooga today with Betsy’s family. Her brother, sister-in-law, and nieces all came to visit, so we spent the hottest day of the year running around downtown.
After visiting the aquarium and having some ribs, we went across the river to Coolidge Park, where Eliza loved the fountains and carousel. She even managed to get sprayed a little to cool down. Elze is quite the trooper when we’re running around, and seemingly loves everything and everyone.
Eliza plays with her first toy from Uncle Kevin… a bubble machine.
Eliza made her first big trip to Kentucky over the weekend. She met more people in three days that she had met in her life so far. Great grandmother, great grandfather, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends. Everyone fell in love with her, of course, and she seemed to have a great time.
Here she is with cousins Drevin and Hannah, happy to be the newest member of the group.
Just wanted to give some perspective here. Look how much Eliza has grown. First picture = little E at 10 days old. Second picture = Eliza in same chair, 5 months old (22 weeks, to be precise). I can’t believe how much she has grown and changed in so little time.
Thanks to Nana for this awesome picture.
Eliza is 5 months old today. She can roll over, eats “real” food, tries very hard to sit up on her own, loves to stand up with support, and loves being sung/talked to. She’s a little attached to mom and dad right now, which means she gets a tad upset when we leave her sight. But in general, she is a happy baby. Still curious about everything and everyone she sees. She absolutely adores going all over the mountain: shopping, to lunch with friends, to get coffee, walking around campus, even department meetings are fun for her. 5 months old! The time is flying.
So my first Mother’s Day was tainted by the fact that I had to “work” (Sewanee always has its graduation on Mother’s Day). No matter. It was still amazing to wake up and know that I, too, am a mother now. Still a bit surreal.
Eliza couldn’t pick out my gifts, but Dad did an awesome job. A beautiful cedar trunk to put her keepsakes in, something I hope to pass down to her. A “peanut” charm for my bracelet, since that’s what we called her before we knew she was a girl. And a brand new coffee maker to help take the sting out of early mommy mornings.
Here’s how we know Eliza is teething:
Overall, our verdict is that this teething thing sucks (pun intended). I understand that it’s necessary, but it’s hard on poor little babies who have no idea why this is happening to them. Can’t wait to see a little tooth pop up, though. Problem is…it could be a month or two of this before we see any results!
Eliza is outgrowing all her baby seats. As you can see, she’s trying desperately to sit up. So…even though she is strapped into this cushy, soft, vibrating seat , she is trying to get out of it. She has several little “chairs” but they all recline, so she isn’t fond of them anymore. She wants to sit straight up and see the world. No chilling out for little Eliza! Are you kidding? There’s too much to see and do!
Everyone always comments on Ellie’s eyes…how clear, how attentive they are, how pretty. She’s always had great eyes, even from birth. She wasn’t out in the world 5 seconds before she popped her eyes open and was looking around. Heck, we’ve even got a 3D Ultrasound of her with her eyes open In Utero.
We’ll see about the color, though…both Betsy and I have greenish eyes, while Ellie is still deep blue. She’s still got time for them to change, though.
We gave Eliza avocado for the first time yesterday. She was skeptical but ate quite a bit, despite the look of confusion on her face. We’ll try again today.
In other news, we’re having some tough sleep issues. The little monkey has learned to roll over onto her belly, which means the swaddle is no longer effective or safe. Yet it is hard for her to settle down without being swaddled. She is also rolling onto her tummy and waking herself up in the middle of the night. She doesn’t know how to roll onto her back yet, so she either screams for one of us to help or sometimes will eventually settle down and stay on her belly to sleep. Not the safest thing in the world, we realize. So…”sleeping through the night” is a distant memory. But hopefully we’ll get there again.
